By Dan Calabrese ——Bio and Archives--June 19, 2013
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The Republican-controlled House of Representatives on Tuesday passed legislation severely restricting abortions, a move that could alienate women from the conservative party. The bill would ban abortions 20 weeks after fertilization occurs, a time when a fetus begins to feel pain, Republicans said. The legislation makes exceptions for victims of rape and incest as long as they first report the crime to authorities. The bill has no chance of becoming law with Democrats controlling the Senate and the White House threatening to veto it. Still, passage of the bill highlighted the influence of ultra-conservative House Republicans, who have forced the chamber to adopt more conservative measures. The legislation passed in 228-196 vote with a few Republicans dissenting and little Democratic support. "The bill strengthens (Republicans) with their pro-life constituency, but that base is already secure," said Larry Sabato, politics professor at the University of Virginia. "This can't help the GOP broaden its appeal among women, independents, and the young." Ultraconservatives contributed to Republican Senate race losses in the 2012 election after one candidate said women's bodies could ward off pregnancy in cases of "legitimate rape" and another said pregnancy resulting from rape was "something God intended to happen."You do a story about the killing of babies and you quote Larry Sabato? I did not know that he was an expert in neo-natal health. Of course, this story is typical of how all legislative action is reported these days. The media tells you nothing about the substance of the issue itself, going straight to the politics. That's why they quote some political analyst instead of an expert on pregnancy or abortion procedures. It's more important to Reuters to dwell on the assumption that this is an unwise political move than to simply report on what the bill would do if it became law. This is not to say I have no problems with the bill, by the way. I've already shared my thoughts on abortion politics and how and why I think it should change, and many of you weighed in with your thoughts on what I proposed. But my issue is not, primarily, that it is bad politics (although that is part of it). It's that trying to pass laws stopping abortion is unlikely to stop any abortions, so you make like you're doing something to save babies but you don't really save any. Reuters, of course, doesn't care about saving babies. It only cares about saving Democrats.
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